–Linebacker Khalil Mack’s ankle injury and missed practice on Wednesday led to questions about whether he is among players with the ability to miss a week of practice and then play in a game.
“I’m finding that out, I don’t know the answer to that, I really don’t,” head coach Matt Nagy said. “But he’s doing good, he’s in good spirits and we’re just going about business.
“You could see it when he tweaked it, he continued to play. So we’ve just got to keep an eye on it so that he’s mentally ready as well as physically.”
Mack’s ability to play through the injury against Miami impressed teammates. Mack has never missed a game in the NFL.
“Khalil’s a guy, he’s a competitor,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “For him to stick through the game with an injury, that’s something you expect from him, especially a guy that type.”
If Mack can’t go or is hobbling, it could be a problem against an offense that put 43 points up on Kansas City.
“It’s 11 people on the defensive side of the ball so the rest of the team has gotta pick him up and put him on our back now,” Jackson said. “That’s part of being a team, you can’t rely on just one person.”
–The Bears defense anticipated addressing their poor tackling against Miami.
“That’s not Chicago style defense,” linebacker Roquan Smith said. “It’s the entire defense. Everyone has to look at themselves and have to get better and bring our feet and arms when we tackle.”
Jackson said defensive coordinator Vic Fangio “touched” on the topic.
“He was a little frustrated about it,” Jackson said. “That’s something that Coach Vic’s been preaching since I walked in the door is about tackling.”
–Nagy acknowledged Belichick’s experience edge is huge, but isn’t worrying about whether he’s outscheming the master.
“I think you can spend too much time on that,” Nagy said. “I look at that and I think I’ve said it before, it can be kind of like chasing the cat’s tail. You’ve got to be careful of that and when you just start worrying about what you do and, of course, here or there you might so something a little bit different, but if you just start doing things different because of one coach … now you’ve stopped worrying about just controlling what you can control. And I haven’t found too much success with that.”
–Wide receiver Taylor Gabriel earned a reputation for being a jack of all trades in Atlanta, but has gone beyond that with what he’s been asked to do in Matt Nagy’s offense.
“I played running back this year, so that’s shocking,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel has 12 catches for 214 yards and two touchdowns the last two games, including 60 yards after the catch.
Gabriel’s blocking downfield was questioned by coordinator Mark Helfrich earlier this year, but it’s improved. And his speed as a threat takes defenders away from the ball even when he isn’t actually blocking or catching a pass.
“It’s just showing that I can be an every-down wide receiver, not just catching deep balls and running routes, but blocking, in the sense that if I have a decoy route, running that full speed. (It’s) just doing everything in all aspects of being a wide receiver full speed.”
BY THE NUMBERS: 9 — The number of touchdown passes thrown by Mitchell Trubisky in his last two starts. It equals the number of TD passes he threw in the first 15 starts of his 17-game career.
